Waiting For Smart Phones To Go

AS THE smart PHONE celebrates its tenth birthday today, i still can't decide whether to get one. Maybe in a few years. maybe never. Right now I prefer doing my telephoning the old fashioned way; the phone is a box, sitting where it sits, and when it rings, I have to get up, walk across the room, and answer it. Why exactly i prefer it that way is hard to say, other than it saves money and reminds me of my happy childhood. When I was ten years old, I watched Kirk and Spock use their communications devices, and I wanted one, badly. I figured if I waited around long enough, I would eventually have one, just like I would eventually have a flying car, a place on Mars, and extremely long life. I recall how people in the nineteen nineties made a habit of talking on their cell phones while driving, deliberately, just to be seen doing so, because doing so was a sign of wealth, status, importance, and technological savvy. You don't see people doing that anymore, because having a smart phone is no big deal. Everybody has one. Now I wonder if there will ever come a time when everyone in public is not staring dazedly into his or her smart phone, and punching at it with both thumbs. There will, of course, somehow, somewhen, and I can't wait. Each new device is better than the last. bring it. We must not be afraid of implanting computer chips in our skulls, but we must defend staunchly our right not to do so. The advent of new technology does not invalidate old technology. Television did not kill or replace radio. Smart phones will never replace good old fashioned face to face same room real time real space real human chit chat, and vinyl is coming back.